Tilemill as Cartographic output

Yong

Posted 29 November 2012 - 09:24 PM

Yong

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I exploring the possibility of using Tilemill to create some map and output them as SVG or PDF. When i open the files in Adobe illustrator, it's just one layer.
Can anyone comment the viability of this approach. The intended output is for offset printing.

Ted Florence

Posted 30 November 2012 - 09:03 AM

Ted Florence

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Although this posting may seem a little self-serving nonetheless the question posed is straight into the Avenza wheelhouse so I thought I should reply. So from what I understand, Tilemill is designed primarily for making interactive maps for the Web and as it appears that you are more interested in actual printing of your creations a more graphic design oriented approach would be better from the get-go.Going through Illustrator is certainly the best route but how you get there is the difference.Rather than exporting PDFs and then opening them for further edits in Illustrator you might be better to use something like MAPublisher with Illustrator and go straight into Illustrator with your data. That way all your layering would be intact and offset printing the results would be easy.

I exploring the possibility of using Tilemill to create some map and output them as SVG or PDF. When i open the files in Adobe illustrator, it's just one layer. Can anyone comment the viability of this approach. The intended output is for offset printing.

Dennis McClendon

Posted 30 November 2012 - 01:39 PM

Dennis McClendon

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It is sort of hilarious to me to see how young members of our profession—at least judging by postings on Reddit and the recent NACIS conference—see everything through the lens of web mapping. A lot of it reminds me of Steve Martin's old joke about how to be a millionaire: "first you get a million dollars." So I hear people talking about how to make a map: "first you run your map data through this application."

Yong

Posted 02 December 2012 - 08:14 PM

Talking about a closed up mind. I know the workings of print mapping, working with one for a few years. The drill is always some CAD/GIS data --> AI --> Indesign. You should get out more often...

It is sort of hilarious to me to see how young members of our profession—at least judging by postings on Reddit and the recent NACIS conference—see everything through the lens of web mapping. A lot of it reminds me of Steve Martin's old joke about how to be a millionaire: "first you get a million dollars." So I hear people talking about how to make a map: "first you run your map data through this application."

Posted 02 December 2012 - 10:22 PM

Talking about a closed up mind. I know the workings of print mapping, working with one for a few years. The drill is always some CAD/GIS data --> AI --> Indesign. You should get out more often...

It is sort of hilarious to me to see how young members of our profession—at least judging by postings on Reddit and the recent NACIS conference—see everything through the lens of web mapping. A lot of it reminds me of Steve Martin's old joke about how to be a millionaire: "first you get a million dollars." So I hear people talking about how to make a map: "first you run your map data through this application."

Excuse me, but did you kind of skip over a step there?

His reply may have been a little short ; ) but I tend to agree with Dennis. Too many map makers focus on the technology and not the map itself. Adding data and setting styles has become what some people think of as the entire process of "cartography" or "map making". The process really needs to start conceptually and the map maker has to match the technology to the maps purpose.

To your question specifically, TileMill is not where you would start a map design project that you wanted to end up in AI for print publication (unless you were specifically experimenting in that process). You start in AI. GIS (or MAPublisher) are luxuries in that process, and easily abused. If you are relying in GIS data and need a way to get it into AI I'd suggest some open source software like Q GIS, unless you have access to ArcGIS which can export directly to AI.

Charles Syrett

Posted 03 December 2012 - 10:03 AM

Talking about a closed up mind. I know the workings of print mapping, working with one for a few years. The drill is always some CAD/GIS data --> AI --> Indesign. You should get out more often...

It isn't always the simplistic process you mention here. Since you presumably do "get out", you must know this! I run a mapmaking business (as does Dennis), and very often there just isn't any appropriate data to start with. Then the fun begins – you have to use other sources as well as good old fashioned cartographic know-how to fulfill the client's requirements.

Posted 03 December 2012 - 10:54 AM

Talking about a closed up mind. I know the workings of print mapping, working with one for a few years. The drill is always some CAD/GIS data --> AI --> Indesign. You should get out more often...

It isn't always the simplistic process you mention here. Since you presumably do "get out", you must know this! I run a mapmaking business (as does Dennis), and very often there just isn't any appropriate data to start with. Then the fun begins – you have to use other sources as well as good old fashioned cartographic know-how to fulfill the client's requirements.

Dennis McClendon

Posted 03 December 2012 - 02:09 PM

I certainly didn't mean to seem rude to anyone, and perhaps language is an issue.

To me, TileMill is a way to turn vector art into raster tiles. So I'm having trouble seeing what rôle it would play in turning vector data into a vector product. Perhaps Yong could elaborate on his idea?

wick

Posted 03 December 2012 - 02:14 PM

wick

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Excuse me, but did you kind of skip over a step there?

Without more info we don't really know what step of the process Yong is at. Presumably Yong intends to further refine the export out of TileMill, hence the desire for layered Illustrator files. There are many ways to get GIS data into Illustrator, and here we're exploring the possibility of using TileMill for this task - ArcGIS, QQIS or MAPublisher all work well - but maybe there's a special case for using TileMill (importing GeoJSON data into the map?). Maybe you can let us know more about what you're trying to do.

To address the question, if you do use TileMill it doesn't look like you can get a layered export but I'd suggest either:1) Style each class of data with a unique style and then pick it apart in Illustrator using Select > Same > Fill & Stroke.or2) Export each layer in TileMill individually to SVG or PDF and paste each export into a new layer in 1 Illustrator file. If they don't register easily you could add a reference layer that just contains 1 square feature and export each layer along with that reference layer and line everything up in Illustrator by that reference square.